Let's Go Home
by legend2130
Summary: So I had a crazy thought: what if June was shot in that final battle against the Colonies instead of Day? This is my first fanfic; it's probably going to suck, so read at your own risk (lol). Rated T for character death. June's POV.
1. Chapter 1

The nurse dropped Eden. She dropped him right in the middle of the sidewalk, where he's most vulnerable to attack. I don't think; I don't hesitate- I run after him. He looks confused and frightened when I hoist him up into my arms, but relaxes the moment he sees my face.

Someone grabs my shoulders, and I whirl around, prepared to strike them with one hand- but it's only Day.

"Let me take him, yeah?" he says. I let him scoop Eden into his own arms. "Come on, evacuation center's this way."

"Evacuation?" I shout as we begin to race through the congested streets of Los Angeles. "I'm not evacuating; I'm staying to fight!"

Day's obviously annoyed by my stubbornness and shoots me a look. "Fine," he says reluctantly, because he knows I won't back down. "We'll drop Eden off, and then we're going after Jameson. Together."

A thrill runs through my body. _We're going after Jameson._ We'll finally be rid of that vile woman, the woman who robbed us of our families, our childhood, and each other. Adrenaline courses through my veins at that thought- I'm going to _kill_ Natasha Jameson. _We're_ going to kill Natasha Jameson.

Day's caretaker, Lucy, takes Eden from us when we reach the train. I can tell by the look on her face that she wants to make us board the train too, but we dash back onto the chaotic street before she can say anything. I have to move more slowly than I want to for Day; his illness is catching up to him and his body refuses to move as it should. If our pace remains the same, we'll soon be susceptible to enemy fire.

Just as that thought forms in my mind, a bullet strikes the ground less than three feet in front of us. I grab Day's hand, yanking him forward with me, faster and faster until I can hear his labored breathing and feel the warmth of his sweat. I'm going to push him too far, but I have no other choice if I want to keep him alive. I refuse to let either one of us die when we're so close to-

_Crack. Crack._

I hear the two bullets pierce the air, but I don't feel the pain until I look down and see the blood soaking my jacket. A violent shudder runs through my body. I look up at Day who has stopped in his tracks to gape in horror at the bright red stains on my torso. Unable to support myself, I collapse to the ground. Pain lances up and down my spine when my head smacks the concrete, and my vision darkens before returning in a haze of shapes and colors.

The pain in my gut is excruciating, an all-consuming fire. The trembling of my body makes it worse, but I can't stop. Just breathing makes it worse, but my brain refuses to shut my body down yet. Every heartbeat, every time blood surges through my veins, draws me closer and closer to bleeding out. There's blood everywhere; my entire world is shrouded in red.

I feel two gentle, calloused hands reach down to cup my face. Blue eyes widened in shock desperately hold my brown ones with the intensity of their gaze. His lovely face swims before me. Another pair of eyes peers down at me from behind Day's shoulder, but these ones are pale silver.

"I'll get a medic," Pascao tells Day, who can only nod before his friend rushes off to find help.

But I know help won't get here fast enough. I can already feel Death, can already feel my soul drifting away from my wounded body. I'm going to die. I'm going to die without getting the chance to avenge my family's deaths. Jameson will remain alive, free to torture and kill whomever she wants.

But worse than that, I'm never going to see Day again. The thought is so terrible, so _unfair_, that I almost sob as I stare up into his fear-filled eyes. You're going to be okay," are the first words out of Day's mouth. I just smile back at him, the blood rising in my throat rendering me unable to speak. Day's resolve finally breaks when he sees my sad, hopeless smile, and he begins to cry.

I cough blood onto myself and clear my throat. "D-don't c-c-cry," I stutter, wincing at the agony that courses through me when I speak.

"Shh," Day whispers, leaning down to press his lips to my forehead. I close my eyes and try not to cry as his tears splash onto my cheeks. "Don't talk- save your energy."

We both recognize this as a futile attempt at optimism. It won't matter how much energy I save; I'm beyond all hope. The pain is now only a distant throb, pulling me away with it. My heartbeat is slowing mercifully, and my vision keeps fading into murky blackness.

"Day," I murmur feebly. "I love you…"

He bites his lip, but a sob still manages to escape him. "Don't leave," he begs.

I try to respond, to tell him he'll be okay, but something behind his shoulder catches my eye. A smiling young man with shoulder-length black hair and golden eyes shimmers beyond the battlefield. My face lights up. Is it really-

Metias. Suddenly, I'm as light as air, as though nothing is shackling me to this cruel world we live in. The pain has vanished completely. I jump to my feet and run toward him as quickly as my feet will carry me, tackling him in a hug when I reach him. His arms wrap around me, and he feels strong and warm and safe, just like he always did. A few tears fall down my cheeks as I hold him.

"Let's go home, Junebug," he whispers in my ear.

I break away from his embrace, turning to look at Day who is still hunched over my broken body. Hesitation builds in my chest. Go home…and leave Day? Never kiss him again, never run my hands through his unruly blonde hair, never see his blue eyes grinning at me, never hear his smooth-as-silk voice in my ear, ever again? Leave him all alone to fight this war against the Colonies- to kill Jameson- and battle his terminal illness?

Metias sighs. "You can choose to stay here, June. It's _your_ life; this is_your_ decision. But he'll be coming home soon, too."

I look up into my brother's eyes, so much like my own, and smile. _He'll be coming home soon, too._ This won't be our final parting. I just wish I could tell Day that… I see him bury his face in his hands when the light leaves my eyes, when I'm left staring at nothing. To him, I'm only a body now. He leans down and plants one last kiss on my cracked, bloodied lips and closes my eyelids with his fingertips.

I take a deep breath. _You'll see him again soon, June. You've made the decision to leave; you have to go through with it_.

I lace my fingers through Metias's. "Let's go home," I whisper.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so someone suggested that Day should die in this fic, too. And while it pains me greatly to kill off my favorite character, I've decided to do just that. I thought I'd do it over the course of a few chapters…So, yep! Hope you all enjoy!**

**3****rd****Person POV**

The last thing he did before he fell into his coma was attend her funeral. It was held on a rainy, miserable Thursday, the perfect atmosphere to match his mood. Before the service began, the owner of the funeral home allowed him to have a moment alone with her. She was so, so pale, and her hair hung loose from its usual ponytail. She was wearing a simple black dress and clutching a bouquet of flowers in her cold hands. The flowers were turquoise sea daisies, as he had requested.

The thing that bothered him most as he stared down at her lifeless face was how she looked nothing like the June he remembered. Without her dark, always analyzing eyes open, without her lips curving up in a smile, she looked so foreign- so _unreal_. Actually, the whole thing was unreal. Every morning since she had died, he felt like he'd see her when he awoke, like she'd be sleeping beside him just like that night they shared at her apartment. The thought that she was _dead_ was so ludicrous he almost laughed. June Iparis- _dead? _No, she was too vibrant, too selfless and brilliant and beautiful to be _dead_.

Yet there they were, two human beings, one with the absence of the soul that had made her so luminous in life.

Only when the casket was closed and buried under shovelfuls of dirt did reality sink in: June's _gone_.

On the car ride home, he finally felt tears build in his eyes. They rolled silently down his cheeks as he watched the gray clouds pass by in a blur. He needed someone to hold onto, someone to tell him it was going to be all right. Ironically, he found that that person had always been June. Over the past two years, whenever he felt afraid about losing someone or sad about someone he'd already lost, June was the one who was there to comfort him. She was the only one he wanted to comfort him now.

He collapsed when he got out of the car- just dropped right there on the pavement. Maybe it was from grief, or maybe it was the illness attacking his brain. Whatever it was, he felt relieved when it let him fall. He heard the horrified scream of a young boy before vanishing into a thick darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Day's POV**

Only thoughts and memories exist in this dark abyss. I can hear a subtle beeping somewhere beside me, and sometimes I hear voices assuring me everything's going to be all right, but other than that, I've only got my mind for company.

I resist the memories at first; they're things I don't want to see. But gradually, my defenses are beaten down by the constant throbbing of my head, and thoughts I've pushed away for years flood into my mind.

First, I see my family. All of us are together as we should be. Mom and Dad are talking and laughing as they prepare dinner for us, and Eden and I are pestering our older brother. There's another where John, Eden, and I are sitting at the table before school as John crams for a history test, Eden tries to build a catapult for the peas he despises, and I'm laughing at both of their efforts. I see myself with my parents: Mom trying to tame my flyaway hair before sending me to elementary school, and Dad giving me piggyback rides around the house before he leaves for work. My mind shows me every happy moment we ever shared in the short, precious years we had together.

Then there's Tess and me: the first time we met, the first time we agreed to be friends, the first crime we ever committed… My mind shows me images of us laughing before a makeshift fire, Tess bandaging me up after I got myself injured, and the two of us sitting in an abandoned apartment building, swinging our feet out of the window.

The last memories I see are of June and me, and although they send wave after wave of anguish rolling over me, they also fill me with a child-like delight. I relive our first meeting, when she was almost killed by an angry Skiz crowd, and our first kiss in the moonlight. I find us stumbling through the streets of Vegas, meeting the Patriots at their headquarters, and having quite the make-out session in their bathroom. I see her stumble out of Anden's Jeep and save him, and the heated argument afterwards, followed by fighting lessons. Then we're wandering through endless tunnels into the bright, bizarre land that is the Colonies of America, where we're rescued by Kaede and brought back to the Republic so I can declare my allegiance to the Elector. The next memory fills me with shame: the cowardly goodbye at her apartment where I left her to cry without any explanation of my illness.

But we found our way back to each other. I want to smile as I see her in that lovely red dress again at the Elector's birthday party. Next comes our little date at the café when she gave me the paperclip ring I still wear. I can almost hear those sirens again, the ones that disrupted the peace of the evening to bring us the news that the Colonies were attacking. And then there's the most vivid of my memories: the night I spent at June's apartment. Our talk on the balcony, the kiss that obliterated every terrible thing in the world, the heat of our bodies against each other as we made love…

My mind stops there; how nice of it to leave me with the best of my memories. Suddenly I ache for June so deeply that I feel like the hospital bed has fallen out from under me, and I'm sinking down into an endless chasm of despair. I ache for Mom and Dad and John too, wherever they are. It occurs to me that I'm down to only two people that I care about: Eden and Tess. If they weren't here, I might give into Death who lingers at my bedside, waiting patiently for me to become too weak to hold myself together.

The door creaks open, and I hear footsteps on linoleum tiles and the creaking of a chair as someone sits. A delicate, gentle hand folds itself into mine. I can tell it's Tess before she speaks.

"Hey, cousin." Her voice wavers unsteadily, like she's been crying. "The doctor says you're doing much better recently."

She comes in a lot to give me updates on my situation. My condition fluctuates all the time, leaving the doctors with no certain answer as to how long I'll survive.

I hear her sigh. It's a sigh meant for someone much older, someone who's seen enough of the world to know how goddy awful it is. "I don't know what you want to do. I can't tell if you want to survive, or…" She takes a deep breath. "Day, if you're going to fight, you have to do it now. They want to give you the operation, but if you aren't willing to fight for your life, it won't matter what they do to your brain.

"But you don't want to fight, do you?" Her voice cracks, and she pauses to rein in her emotions. "We'd all like to see you again, but Day… Do what _you_ want to do. You're always looking out for the people you love, but sometimes you need to look out for yourself, too. Eden and I would be okay. Your caretaker would stay with him, and I would look out for him, too. He'll never be alone, and neither will I. So, if you need to go, then go."

I feel her lips on my forehead. "I love you, no matter what you decide to do."

She stays with me for a couple more minutes, during which I'm trying to process everything she told me. I could stay and fight and watch Eden grow up… Or I could leave and see my family and June again. Whatever I do, someone's going to be hurt, and that someone is _me_. I wish there was a way we all could be together.

But here Tess is, giving me permission to stop fighting and let myself go. I should take this opportunity and go to the place she and Eden will eventually find, as well. Still, I'm hesitant to leave Eden behind. He'll have no family left to take care of him, just a woman the Republic supplied for him.

I hate not knowing what to do.

The door opens again, and Tess stands. "Ready to go, Eden?" she asks.

"I just wanted to say goodbye," he answers.

I hear the swish of his heavy winter coat as he makes his way over to the bed. He blindly walks into it, and Tess has to keep him from falling on top of me. They both laugh, and Eden jokes about being as blind as a bat. The sound of them laughing and teasing is good to hear. Maybe they would be all right together. They'd definitely get along.

Eden gives me a gentle hug, careful not to disturb all of the tubes and wires poking out of my skin. "See you tomorrow, Danny," he whispers in my ear.

"You're going back to school tomorrow," Tess reminds him. "Lucy said you should stay home afterwards, so that you can catch up to the other kids."

"But what if he's, you know, _gone_ before I can come back?"

See, I knew I couldn't leave him.

Tess sighs. "All right. I'll talk Lucy into letting you stay."

"You're the best," Eden says, and I can feel his grin.

"Yeah, yeah- I know," Tess jokes. They're quiet for a moment before Tess pipes up again. "What if I talked to Lucy about letting you stay until your brother's…gone. Would you be okay if that happened while you were here? Or would you be scared if he died while you were in the room?"

She's got her motherly voice on. She's being so good with him, better than I've ever been or ever will be. What he needs is a mother figure taking care of him.

"It would be scary," Eden admits. "But, I mean, I want to be with him if it happens. He should have some company."

"And if it does happen, how would you feel?" The kid I grew up with sounds like a cracked therapist now. I wonder how she'd be navigating Eden through all of the other problems he's going to face later on in life…

"Sad," he says quietly. "But happy, too, because he'd be in heaven with Mom and Dad and John. And he wouldn't be sick anymore."

"You're right," Tess responds. She zips his coat for him. "We'll talk more later; go get in the car. I'll be there in a second." The door opens and closes once more, and I feel Tess's eyes on me. "Hear that, Day? Eden would understand, too. I can tell he's the main reason you won't give up." She chuckles a bit. "You can't hide anything from me, even when you're in a coma." She gives me one last kiss on my cheek. "We love you. See you tomorrow."

I waited until the next morning when they were both with me, each of them holding one of my hands, to look at Death, smile faintly, and say, "I'm ready."


	4. Chapter 4

**So this is the conclusion of ****_Let's Go Home._****I couldn't just end it with Day's death- I had to throw in a happy ending where he and June are together again. I'm terrible at writing endings though, so just try to bear with me. ;) Having said that... I JUST FINISHED MY FIRST FANFIC; I FEEL SO ACCOMPLISHED XD**

**June's POV**

Five months after my own death, Day dies in his sleep in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and IV drips. I'd watched over him like a hawk, never once leaving my vigil at his bedside. I spoke to him whether he could hear me or not; I told him everything was going to work out fine and that we'd all be together soon.

They buried his body next to mine. We both have engraved glass headstones that gleam in the bright Los Angeles sunshine. My brother's headstone is on my opposite side, and Kaede's headstone is on Day's opposite side. After the catastrophic mess the four of us took part in causing, it seems fitting that we've all been buried beside each other.

However, that cemetery is not where we truly reside. We're all Here (capital H), wherever Here is. All I know is that Here is the most beautiful place I've ever seen- even more beautiful than snowy Denver, or sunny Los Angeles. It resembles Earth in a way, but it's much more vibrant and young. Colors seem more vivid, animals seem wilder, the geographical features seem more intricate, and people seem more ethereal.

I watch tearfully as Day's family approaches him when he enters Here looking lost and confused. The look on his face when he sees his mother and father and older brother is one of purest joy. They all embrace and laugh together as they're reunited after such a long time. It takes all of my patience not to run right to him, throw my arms around his neck, and bring his lips down to mine, but I know he must get reacquainted with his family first.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. "So that's the boyfriend, huh?"

I glance up at my brother and nod. "Yes, that's the boyfriend."

Metias chuckles. "You know, I had a lot of fun watching the two of you from up here," he remarks. "You kids got in a hell of a lot of trouble."

My cheeks begin to turn pink. "How much did you see?"

"Was there something I wasn't supposed to see, Junebug?" he asks innocently.

"Oh, goodness gracious, Metias- there were _many_ things you weren't supposed to see!"

He sticks out his tongue, and I return the gesture. It feels so good to be teasing with my brother again; I missed him more than words could say while we were apart. And- _my parents._ Metias introduced me when I first got here, and I have to admit that I cried when I met the mother and father I never knew. My mother looks _exactly_ like me, and my father has the same logical mind as I do.

Right now, Day has the same delight in his eyes that I did when I saw my parents again. My heart soars when his eyes find mine and the unbridled joy on his face grows even brighter. He says something to his family before racing over to me, lifting me up off my feet before I can even get a word out. I wrap myself around him, burying my face in his hair as a sob forces its way out of my throat.

When he sets me down so he can kiss me, I throw my arms around his neck and allow myself to be consumed by the passion between us. His mouth moves desperately against mine, trying to make up for all of the kisses we weren't able to share since I died.

"I missed you," he murmurs in my ear, his voice quivering with emotion.

I hold onto him tightly, trying not to cry. "I missed you, too."

Metias coughs behind us, and I let go of Day. When Day sees my brother, his eyes widen. "You're June's older brother?"

"That's right, young man," Metias says with a glare that I can tell is fake. Day can't, though; he actually looks scared of my brother. It's quite comical, really: after dying, you'd think you wouldn't be afraid of anything.

Metias looks Day up and down and shakes his head with a sigh. He clucks his tongue in mock-distaste. "I don't know about this one, June," he says, looking at me with an amused glint in his eye. "I don't know if he's worthy of my little sister. What about that boy you dated in college…What's his name? Dorian? You should wait till that kid gets up here; you two were a cute couple."

"Oh, gosh," I mutter in mortification as Day looks up sharply and says, "Who?"

Metias laughs and slaps Day's shoulder. "I'm messing with you, kid," he says with a wink. "I suppose I can get used to my baby sister having a…_boyfriend_."

After ten humiliating minutes of heckling the two of us, Metias mercifully takes his leave. I turn to look at Day, my cheeks a bright red. "He can't give me a break about boys, even now that I'm dead."

"I have only one question, sweetheart: Who is this Dorian?"

"Oh, don't you get me started."

He laughs, and the sound gives me a rush of euphoria that brings a gigantic grin to my lips. It's the most beautiful sound in the world, and he's the most beautiful boy in the world, and he's _mine_, forever and always. I realize now that Earth was never my home, and even this place isn't my home. My home is wherever Day is; my home is the smile on his face and the intensity of his eyes and the passion he emanates through every movement he makes.

My home, until the day I cease to exist, is the love Daniel Altan Wing has for me.


End file.
